Our journey to adoption began a few years ago, though we didn't realize it at the time. Kathleen had a major surgery and faced a long road to recovery. Shortly after her surgery, she was involved in a car accident which complicated her healing process. Although we wanted to start our family sooner than later, we agreed it should wait until Kathleen had recovered. Our family plans soon became significantly more complicated. During one of her follow-up appointments, Kathleen was diagnosed with a genetic disorder which posed significant risk to her and a biological child. After careful thought and much reflection, it became clear to her, and soon to Tyler, that she would never be comfortable with the possibility of passing her genes to a child. While pregnancy and childbirth is risky for her, the disorder can magnify significantly in children, and this wasn't a risk we were willing to take. We are thankful that, despite the genetic disorder, Kathleen is fully capable of leading a normal life, including parenting and maintaining her career. Through everything, we knew we still wanted to grow our little family and raise a child. Adoption feels very right to us, and we know it's the path we were meant to take. We are excited to be on this journey, and our family is thrilled for us. We are so looking forward to growing our family through adoption. Adoption is an expensive journey, and one we are prepared to fund. We have established a line of credit to assist with this, but any help would be appreciated so that we can pay it down. There is a stigma regarding fundraising for adoption; many people believe that if you can't afford adoption, you shouldn't. Pregnancy is expensive, so why should adoptive parents fund-raise? For a better understanding of where this money is going, here are some of the line items associated with the cost of adoption: - All of the birth mothers medical expenses - Living expenses for the birth mother/parents (including rent, phone, groceries) - Costs for an agency to assist us in the legal complexities of adoption - Hospital care for the child up until the birth parents terminate their rights (only then will our insurance kick-in) - Ongoing counseling for the birth parents and postpartum care for the birth mother Any assistance would help. Please consider donating to our family and helping us fulfill our dream of becoming parents. With gratitude, Tyler and Kathleen
